Buying a Used Car Privately in Ontario, Fee by Fee From $20

Buying a used car privately in Ontario costs more than the price you shake hands on. Budget for three extra things: a $20 Used Vehicle Information Package (a government report on that one car, usually called a UVIP), a safety standards certificate from a licensed inspection centre, and 13 per cent retail sales tax. The step people get wrong is the tax. Ontario taxes the greater of what you paid and the wholesale value printed inside the package, so a low number on the bill of sale saves you nothing.

Do these six steps in this order

1. Ask the seller for the package before anything else

The Used Vehicle Information Package is a report ServiceOntario makes for one specific vehicle, and the seller has to buy it and give it to you. Section 11.1(1) of the Highway Traffic Act says a person who sells a used motor vehicle "shall provide a valid used vehicle information package ... and shall deliver the package to the purchaser or transferee at the time of sale or transfer of the vehicle". Failing to do it is an offence under section 11.1(5), which sets a fine of not less than $100 and not more than $500 on a first conviction.

The package costs $20. You can buy one yourself, before the sale or at the counter (ontario.ca, read August 27, 2026). Do that if the seller stalls. Consumer Protection Ontario treats a seller who "refuses to give you a used vehicle information package" as a warning sign of a curbsider. A curbsider sells cars for a living while posing as a private seller.

2. Read two lines in it before you name a price

Two lines set your budget. One is the lien line. A lien is a debt registered against the car itself. The other is the average wholesale value, which the package prints as the minimum value the tax will be charged on.

Read both before you make an offer. If the wholesale value is higher than the number in your head, the package has set your tax bill.

3. Write the bill of sale properly

The package has a bill of sale section at the bottom, and ServiceOntario accepts it. Whatever you use has to be an original document. It can be handwritten.

It must show the vehicle identification number (the VIN, a unique number the maker gives the car, usually visible on the dashboard). It also needs the make, year and power source (gas, diesel or electric), plus the body type, colour and model where available. You also list the price, the seller's name, address and signature, your name, address and signature, and the date of sale. ontario.ca wants it "signed and dated by both the buyer and seller".

4. Settle the safety certificate and start counting days

A safety standards certificate says the car met Ontario's minimum safety standards on the day it was inspected. Only an inspection centre licensed by the Ministry of Transportation can issue one, so look for the Ontario DriveON sign. The certificate arrives by email once the car passes. The province is blunt about the limit: "It is not a warranty or guarantee of the vehicle's condition."

You can register a car without one. You cannot put plates on it without one. The certificate is good for 36 calendar days after the inspection. If it runs out before you register, ontario.ca says you pay for a new inspection and a new certificate.

A certificate the seller bought three weeks before you met has 36 - 21 = 15 days left on it. Ask when the car was inspected.

5. Get insurance before the plates go on

You need insurance on that car, in your name, before plates touch it. ServiceOntario states it as a condition: "You must have this insurance before you can: attach licence plates to a vehicle." The Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act backs that up: section 2(1) bans an owner from operating an uninsured vehicle on a highway, or from letting anyone else do it. Section 2(3) sets the fine on a first conviction at not less than $5,000 and not more than $25,000.

Call your broker with the VIN before you drive to ServiceOntario.

6. Register within six days and pay the tax there

Section 11(2) of the Highway Traffic Act gives you six days after becoming the owner to apply for a new permit. Bring proof of insurance, your Ontario driver's licence, the package, the bill of sale, and the safety standards certificate if one is needed. If the car is 20 years or older, add an appraisal or an insurance policy showing its insured value. Bring the seller's permit too, with the transfer section on the back filled in and signed, plus the odometer reading.

You pay the fees and the tax at that counter, not to the seller.

What the whole thing costs

A buyer who needs new plates pays $20 + $59 = $79, because ontario.ca prices a licence plate at $59 with the permit included. A buyer who already holds plates and moves them across pays $20 + $32 = $52 plus whatever the plate transfer costs.

Neither total includes the tax, a percentage rather than a fee, or the certificate, which is a garage's labour. And ontario.ca does not name a plate transfer fee. The page says you bring the plate portion of your permit and "pay an applicable fee", then stops.

What a safety certificate costs at GTA shops

The province does not set this price: "The cost ... is different at each Motor Vehicle Inspection Station. This isn't regulated by the government."

We read the safety-inspection pages of 10 GTA repair shops on August 27, 2026. Three publish a price for a passenger vehicle. All three print it before tax.

The middle of the three published prices is $150. Best Deals Auto charges its issuance fee only on a pass, so a car that passes there comes to $99 + $10 = $109 before tax. None of the three pages says the inspection is free if the car fails. The other seven leave the price to a phone call, so ring around before you book.

An older $129 still sits in a price list lower down the Best Deals Auto page, on the line for the Service Ontario transfer certificate you need. The heading above that list strikes the $129 out. The shop's own FAQ prices both the rideshare and the Service Ontario inspection at $99, so confirm the figure when you book.

Liens: what the package tells you, and what it does not

The lien line is why you read the package before money changes hands. ServiceOntario spells out what a lien means for a buyer: "a lien claimant has a right to the car or the amount of the lien from the buyer of the vehicle once the transfer is completed". The debt can follow the car to you.

OMVIC, the regulator for Ontario car dealers, adds what that means in practice. You may have to pay off the debt, and the lender could repossess the car. Registered dealers must sell lien-free vehicles, and private sellers are not bound by the same laws.

You can also run the search on its own for $8 online through ServiceOntario, useful when you are weighing up several cars.

Two limits. The package covers the car's Ontario registration history, so a chapter spent in another province is not in it. No package is required at all where the vehicle was previously bought or sold outside Ontario. And it is a snapshot of what was registered the day it was issued.

Getting the car home

The seller keeps the plates. ontario.ca puts it plainly: "the plates travel with a driver, not a vehicle". The car in front of you has none you may use.

If you hold plates from a vehicle you no longer own, you can move them onto the car you just bought. Section 11(4) of the Highway Traffic Act gives you six days from becoming the owner to drive it, if you meet the prescribed requirements. Section 11(3) is the plate half, and it is written for one case: plates issued "for a vehicle the person no longer owns or leases". They go onto "a similar class of vehicle" you own or lease. It is not a general licence to move plates between cars you own. Section 12(1)(d) makes using a plate on a vehicle it is not authorised for an offence.

Regulation 628 section 10(1) sets the conditions. One of the plates must carry current validation. You must hold the vehicle portion of the permit, with the transfer application completed and signed by both of you, and the plate portion of your own permit. And, for a used vehicle, a safety standards certificate from an inspection completed within the preceding 36 days. Section 10(6) says you carry them all and hand them over if an officer asks.

No certificate, no plates, no drive. Section 10(3) is the exception. It drops that condition wherever no certificate would be needed under section 2 or 2.0.2 to get a fit-status permit anyway. Section 2.0.1(3)(a), read through section 2, covers the registered owner's spouse or estate.

Otherwise it is a tow truck or a temporary licence plate sticker, which ServiceOntario sells so you can "drive your vehicle to a garage (for safety standards certificate)". It is $15, runs 10 days from the day it is issued, and you may buy two per vehicle and buyer in a 365 day period (ontario.ca, read August 27, 2026). It needs the permit to show FIT or TMP status. Where the car is not yet in your name, the seller has to complete and sign the back of the permit.

A Special Permit is $23.50 and also lasts 10 days, but ontario.ca limits it to four passenger-vehicle cases, none an ordinary Ontario private purchase. They are importing a car you will not register here, arriving as a new resident, and moving a car to or from an auto auction. The fourth is a FIT vehicle 20 years or older missing the documents the retail sales tax needs.

Three things that change the tax bill

A genuine gift from family

A car given to a qualifying family member transfers free of retail sales tax. The Ministry of Finance counts a spouse (including a common-law spouse), parent, child, sibling, grandparent, grandchild and a court appointed guardian. Step, in-law and adopted relationships are included. You still pay the vehicle registration fees.

Both people complete Ministry of Finance form 013-1157, the Sworn Statement for a Family Gift of a Used Motor Vehicle in the Province of Ontario. They sign it in front of a Commissioner of Oaths, who may charge a fee. Only one exempt transfer of the same car between family members is allowed in a 12-month period. Spouse-to-spouse transfers also skip the safety certificate, provided you complete a spousal declaration.

The word gift is doing real work. The exemption applies only where no consideration was given, so money changing hands ends it.

The car is worth less than the book says

Say the car is excessively used or severely damaged, and its Red Book value is $1,000 or more. You can then have it appraised. If your price and the appraised value both come in under the Red Book value, the tax is charged on the greater of those two.

The appraiser has to be a motor vehicle dealer registered with OMVIC, or an independent appraiser holding a Ministry of Finance appraiser number. The appraisal goes on the Motor Vehicle Appraisal Record form. If you already paid tax on the Red Book value, you can claim a refund. The appraisal has to be finished within 60 days of the purchase date.

Two smaller rules catch people out. If the Red Book value is under $1,000, the tax is charged on what you paid. And a trade-in does not help. The Ministry of Finance says a trade of any nature will not decrease the value the tax applies to.

The car is 20 years or older

Private sales skew old, and an old enough car is taxed on a different basis. The Red Book does not come into it. The rule covers a car, van or truck of 2,200 kilograms or less that is 20 years or older when you register it. Retail sales tax then falls on the greater of the purchase price and either the replacement value for insurance purposes or the appraised value (ontario.ca, read August 27, 2026).

Bring the bill of sale and either the appraisal or an insurance policy showing the insured value. The Ministry of Finance says one of those two "must be provided to the ServiceOntario Centre at the time of registration".